Interview with John Martin: Republicans for Obama

Today, in the first half of our radio show, we interviewed John Martin of Republicans for Obama. Mr. Martin is a Republican living in New York City and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. You may consider this as the second in a two part series of interviews we shall call, “People voting for people from the other party.” (Tres clever, no?) In the interest of balance, we started the interview by asking John the same questions we put to Silverio Salazar previously, with the obvious exceptions of substituting one candidate for the other where possible. I’ll reserve my own observations and comments for the end of this piece after the transcription of the interview. This interview was conducted by myself (JS) and my radio co-host, Cindy Whitehair. (CW) John continued on with us for a time after the transcribed questions below, talking about the origins and size of his organization and other subjects. You can listen to the full broadcast here. (In the second half of the show we talked to Rick Moran of Right Wing Nuthouse.)

BEGIN INTERVIEW

CINDY WHITEHAIR: I gather from the title of the organization that you haven’t actually left the Republican Party. Do you view the party today as still being mostly in line with your basic political ideology, or is it moving further away? Or are your views perhaps changing over the years?

JOHN MARTIN: I would not say that I’ve changed over the years. I would say that there is consensus around like minded Republicans that the party has changed. Basic, fundamental principals that unite all Republicans, or should unite all Republicans, is that our party should be the party of fiscal discipline. But in recent years it has become very clear that our party is anything but that. I feel first and foremost that I want responsible government and, where appropriate, small government. Our party, when it had control of the White House and Congress, they went ahead and, for example, passed the largest social welfare program since Lyndon Johnson – the Medicare Part D program. That is a huge flashpoint for many people in our organization.

CW: Follow-up – how do you see a President Obama reducing the size of government based off of his website, his plans that he has already espoused?

JM: Well, I think the most important thing is that we need to have a balanced budget. We need to have a government that is taking in about as much as it spends, so more so than even the size of government, and continuing to pass on our burden to our children. Our party is into passing very irresponsible tax cuts. Now I, being a Republican, I love tax cuts. But you can’t always be cutting taxes if you can’t afford to reduce the size of government services, and then you can start cutting taxes after the fact. Obviously both Obama and John McCain have been proposing.. have many spending proposals they want to implement once they are in office, but the fact is that I trust Barack Obama with my tax dollars more than I do my own party at this point.

JAZZ SHAW: Senators Obama and McCain are pretty far apart on some of the issues, and McCain, while not a line for line party guy, is probably a lot closer to the GOP platform than Obama. What specific policy proposals or issues from Obama did you find attractive enough to draw your support?

JM: Well, more so than specific policy proposals – and we can talk about that, because Barack is incorrectly criticized for not having specific proposals – more so than any specific proposals is that fact that our politics, the way we conduct politics in our country has become so divided for the past generation and we’re at a point now where we can’t get anything done. The bottom line is that if you’re going to address the nation’s challenges, the two parties need to be working together and compromise when necessary. Our party, and the Democratic Party – I’m not just going to blame the Republicans of course – over the past generation both parties have been interested in beating the other side than they have been in working together. Barack Obama is the antithesis of this quality. He courts people from all political persuasions in this country and when we’re looking for solutions to our healthcare crisis, to our energy crisis, that’s the type of leaders we need right now.

CW: What do you think of Joe Biden?

JM: I think that he was a smart pick. Obviously I would have preferred Chuck Hagel, but that would have created a civil war inside the Democratic Party, and that was an unrealistic hope on my part, but I think he’s a very smart pick. The main thing is, the first rule these days, the first consideration is that you first have to pick somebody who will do no harm. When you look at some of the choices that McCain has, he doesn’t have any choices that will rise to that level. Joe Biden is an experienced guy and a guy that everybody can get along with, and while I don’t see eye to eye with him on too many policy issues, I think it was a very smart pick and I’m happy that Barack chose him.

CW: If you could whisper in Senator McCain’s ear, who would you recommend that he pick as his vice presidential nominee?

JM: That is a good question. I really don’t know at this point, I mean, the Republican Party is so divided right now that McCain is in a situation right now where he has so many people to please, or try to please, he has to try to appease the hard Right inside the party, and he also has an interest in trying to please or satisfy the independents in the country who still want to see him as a maverick. So it’s going to be a very difficult choice for McCain. I really don’t know who he can pick. I mean, he’s gotten himself in a situation where he’s tried to be the maverick, he’s tried to be a conservative, and he’s tried to be everything, and inevitably he’s going to anger many, many people no matter who he picks.

JS: Are there any choices for McCain that, if he did pick them, it might sway you and suddenly you’d be voting Republican again this year?

JM: You know, I don’t know. I still have hope for our party to rebuild ourselves and come back stronger after this whole experience. People like Bobby Jindal or Governor Palin of Alaska obviously are rising stars in the party, and those are people we can look toward in the future, but I just don’t think he’s going to pick any of them.

JS: What do you see as the principal challenge facing the next president? And what do you like about how Barack Obama will approach that challenge?

JM: From my perspective as a veteran of the Afghan war and the military, someone who is relatively young, the biggest challenge we face is finally finding a big, home grown solution to the energy problem. The reason why we haven’t been able to come together as a country and develop our own energy sources is because we are so divided. It’s remarkable when you look back to the days and months after 9/11 our party had a golden opportunity to be frank with the American people and say, we need to make some serious sacrifices, we need to come together, to work together, and find a solution to our energy problems. Our party didn’t do that. Our party dropped the ball. I think, for me, seven years after that fact, it’s much harder to bring all of these warring factions together, which is paramount to the future of our economy and our security. We need pragmatic solutions and compromise. We can’t get legislation passed until you are willing to compromise. Obama has said he is willing to discuss offshore drilling if it will get legislation passed. Obviously there are some in the Democratic Party who are against drilling, but because Barack Obama is a uniting figure, and a pragmatist who understands that we are at a critical moment in our history, that he might have to give a little bit to get his solution through.

CW: I’m curious what you think about Joe Lieberman. Some of the Democrats clearly feel a bit betrayed by Lieberman, particularly this year. Do you think we need more people like that in both parties – people who are willing to go their own way, or is party unity and the need to get the entire party platform advanced usually more important?

JM: I think Lieberman is not the best example. There’s bad blood there because the Democrats didn’t support him in his election. Democratic party has made it clear they pushed him away. I don’t see any genuine bipartisanship coming from Joe Lieberman, and he isn’t showing genuine bipartisanship like Obama is. He has no allegiance with either party and he has a personal friendship with McCain.

JS: Have you ever supported any other Democratic candidates, perhaps at the state or local level? And what do you think about the impact of third party candidates, such as Bob Barr for example, in the presidential election process?

JM: I’m from NYC. There aren’t many Republicans, obviously. Most of my friends are Democrats. My family members are Democrats. I worked for Jim Jeffords. I’m not person who never talks to Democrats. I have worked with bipartisan politicians. I voted against George Pataki for not being conservative enough. He was a big spender, exhibited the big spending habits of the Republican congress. I definitely had a protest vote here and there but I vote Rep 95% of the time. I have never considered leaving the party. John McCain seriously considered leaving the party but not me. I would rather vote for Democrats rarely and work within the party to try to reform it.

JS: As a follow-up to that, how do you view the dominance of the two-party system in general? Are we getting enough choices or does it act as a limiting factor in voter options?

JM: Well, I think it is inevitable for many reasons, but I think you are seeing more and more where third party candidates are going to get a good shot. Both parties are thinning out, but the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. People who used to identify strongly with their party are becoming independent. We are getting to the point where an independent candidate could run and be successful, and I think that’s a good thing.

CW: Are there any other House or Senate races you’re keeping a particular eye on and supporting a candidate?

JM: Obviously, our organization is all volunteer and is grass roots. People are talking like it’s a foregone conclusion that the Democrats are going to increase their majority in both houses and I think that’s depressing. If I could be more involved in Congressional races I would be supporting Republicans. There is a slate of Republican challengers – Iraqi Vets for Congress – who are stating that we need to stay in Iraq until the job is done. I like seeing a new generation of young Republican candidates who are trying to speak up and make changes, and that’s the kind of thing that gets me excited.

END INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

I continue to be fascinated by people who are crossing party lines for the election this November, but I still remain scratching my head after talking to them. Similar to Mr. Salazar, John Martin seemed a bit reluctant to talk about issues and focused more on the personality of the candidates. The exceptions here, of course, were his willingness to speak about government size and spending, and the the energy crisis. For the former, I must admit to being puzzled, since I’ve hardly seen anything in the proposals of Obama which would inspire confidence that he wants to reduce the size of the government or curb its big spending ways. But he does go so far as to say that he “trusts Obama with his tax dollars” more than McCain, so if he is assuming they will both be spending wildly, I suppose that’s valid. As to the energy question, I personally feel McCain’s proposal is more sound, but his point about Obama being more willing to compromise to find a solution and push it through seems genuine and valid enough.

He doesn’t seem to care very much for any other Democrats, but his support of Obama seems genuine. It’s unsafe to make assumptions like this, but John (as with yours-truly) is from New York and we tend to grow a more-moderate breed of Republicans up here, which might provide a more fertile ground for potential GOP Obama supporters.